One of a Kind, Original, Singular Art

Back when we moved into Wendhurst Castle, Lover and I made an agreement that we would not display anything other than original art in our castle. Well, art, and photographs of course. Which I guess are a type of art. So, yeah, only original art. :-) We entered this agreement knowing that it would take a while to find stuff we agreed on, and it would take even longer to be able to afford our own original art. But, we made the agreement, and it has thus far stood the test of time, like many of our other agreements. Some other time, ask me about the day I agreed to never bring anything Muppets related into the house, in exchange for being able to watch It's a Wonderful Life every Christmas. :-) Okay, now back to art. For quite a while, the only painting displayed in our home was the one over our mantel, that you've seen before.



I found it for five dollars at a garage sale the first summer in our castle, and I snatched it up faster than you can say "original oil painting" :-) I loved the fact that it was from another couple that had owned it for decades, and that it went perfectly with our color scheme while reminding me of my beloved Spain.  And, so, there it sat, for nearly a year, holding the singular, lonely position of  original painting in our home.

But then, Lover's mother took a trip to Bolivia, which is her beloved homeland, and she gifted us with this beautiful watercolor that she found there.



I absolutely adore watercolors, especially because I can paint something somewhat pretty if I am using watercolors. And I love the way that all the colors blend together into one cohesive picture. I also love the translucent quality that all watercolors have.  So that made Original Art Piece Numero Dos.



Then, while trolling for large frames at Goodwill, I stumbled upon this little beauty. I'm always looking for larger scale pieces for the mantel, because it is so freaking ginormous that it needs bigger pieces to fill it up. I thought this little painting would look pretty in the corner.



Again, it has a somewhat ethereal quality, like a watercolor, but it is oil. It signed simply, just "hugo". And I love the soft colors that it brings to that corner of the mantel.



Then, for our dating anniversary in May, I made over a store bought canvas from Target to create this little canvas to display one of Lover's poems. He had mentioned months ago that he wanted this poem up somewhere in our house, and I had been saving this as an anniversary gift for a while.



Shortly after we started dating we came across the saying "Friends Yesterday, Lovers Today, Soulmates Forever" and loved it, because it summed up our decades long relationship perfectly. We met when we were toddlers, and had been friends for about twenty years before we started dating. :-) We even used the saying on our wedding invitations. So when Lover wrote this poem centered around "our" saying, well you can imagine I was delighted.



In case you can't read the writing, the poem reads:

Friends Yesterday

Friendship is that depth of familiarity that sustains us through life.

Lovers Today

Love is that blessed fairy that when softly landed in our hearts breathes the inspiration of poetry.

Soulmates Forever

Soulmates share that singular blend of friendship and love that does not merely sustain and inspire but truly gives both life and poetry their only free expression.

And yes, I know that I am incredibly blessed to have such a wonderfully romantic husband who writes me poetry. :-) But, because Lover is constantly raising the bar, the following week on my birthday he gave me something even more spectacular.

He commissioned an artist to do a painting of my favorite photo from our wedding. The painting is so beautiful, and I love how it captured the mood of the picture, but has a definite artistic quality to it that was not in the original photo. Is that not the best birthday present ever?

So that's our current lineup of original art. Obviously there are no one of a kind Goyas or Monets in the collection, but they are so much more meaningful to us. Which one is your favorite?